Ecommerce website launch checklist: first order

A shopper adds an item and reads the cart total. At the address step, shipping appears, and tax may change the figure again. The payment step then shows a final total that has to equal the cart plus shipping plus tax. The owner tested with one address, probably their own, so the rules for other places were never seen. A shopper from another region can meet no shipping option at all, or a total that jumps at the payment step. They cannot tell whether the store is broken or they have made a mistake, so they leave.

• Payment mode: does checkout use live payment settings, not a test key or a test label?
• Shipping: does an address in another region show at least one option, with a cost?
• Totals: does the figure at payment match the cart after shipping and tax?
• Discount codes: does a valid code reduce the total, and does an invalid one say why?
• Order email: does the confirmation come from an address the shopper knows, with the order number?

A store can run cleanly in test mode and still take no money once it goes live, because test keys and live keys are separate. Check the payment dashboard for its mode before launch, and confirm the checkout is connected to the live account rather than a sandbox. Then place a test order in the provider's test mode, using the test card numbers it publishes, and read the order back in both the store and the payment dashboard. A simulated shopper stops at the payment step, so only your own test order shows whether the charge reaches the payment side.

Shipping settings are rules: a zone for each region, a rate for each zone, and sometimes a minimum order. A shopper outside every zone meets an empty shipping step, and a store with no message for that case looks broken. Test one address in each zone, plus one address your rules do not cover, and read what the shopper sees for each. The message for a missing option should name the regions you do ship to. Owners test from home, so the first shopper outside that area is the one who finds the gap.

Totals change at three points: the cart, the address step and the payment step. Shipping and tax are often added at the last two, and a discount code can apply once and disappear after an address change. Add one item, apply one valid code, enter an address with a different tax rate, and write down the figure at each step. If the figures differ without an explanation on the screen, the shopper will assume the store is charging them extra. Show tax and shipping as separate lines, so the total explains itself.

Checkout flow testing

After payment, the confirmation email is the only proof the shopper has. Check the sender name, the reply address, the order number and the link inside the message, which can still point to a preview address. Some stores send from a domain that their mail settings do not authorize, and the message lands in spam. Send a test order to an inbox you do not control, read the message as a shopper would, and check the spam folder before you call it fixed.

Stores change shipping rates, tax settings, payment providers and discount codes after launch, and each change can break one shopper's path. Run a simulated shopper to the payment step from each region with its own rule after every change. Test any account area behind a login with a test account, and check the order email again whenever the sending domain changes.